1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cleaning apparatus and a cleaning method, and more particularly to a cleaning apparatus and a cleaning method that clean narrow spaces in a semiconductor device manufacturing apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, substrate processing apparatuses that subject substrates such as wafers for semiconductor devices to predetermined processing have a processing chamber (hereinafter referred to merely as “the chamber”) in which predetermined processing is carried out on a substrate housed therein. Deposits arising from reaction products produced in the predetermined processing are attached to the interior of the chamber. When the deposits float to become particles, and the particles become attached to surfaces of substrates, a short circuit occurs in products such as semiconductor devices manufactured from the substrates, resulting in the yield of the semiconductor devices decreasing. Accordingly, to remove the deposits from the interior of the chamber, manual maintenance such as wet cleaning in the interior of the chamber has been conventionally performed by an operator.
However, since it is difficult for the operator to perform manual maintenance on component parts facing narrow spaces such as a bellows and an exhaust component in the chamber, deposits accumulate on the component parts facing the narrow spaces through the use of the substrate processing apparatus for a long time, and particles produced from the deposits enter into a substrate processing space and become attached to surfaces of substrates. For example, it is thought that deposits accumulated on a component part facing a narrow space in the vicinity of a manifold fall off the component part, particles produced from the accumulated deposits are caused to rebound by rotary blades of an exhaust pump provided in the vicinity of the manifold, and the rebounding particles enter into the substrate processing space and become attached to surfaces of substrates (see, for example, the specification of Japanese Patent Application No. 2006-005344).
Accordingly, to remove deposits accumulated on component parts facing narrow spaces such as a bellows and an exhaust component, suction has been conventionally carried out using a commercially available cleaner such as a cleaner having only a suction port.
However, in the case where deposits are removed by suction using the commercially available cleaner as mentioned above, it is difficult to remove fine deposits by suction, that is, it is difficult to satisfactorily clean component parts facing narrow spaces although relatively large deposits can be removed by suction. Thus, through the use of the substrate processing apparatus for a long time, the fine deposits accumulate on the component parts facing the narrow spaces, and particles produced from the accumulated deposits become attached to surfaces of substrates as mentioned above.
To cope with the above described problem, maintenance on component parts facing narrow spaces such as a bellows and an exhaust component is performed by replacing or disassembling them, but such maintenance requires a lot of time and effort and is very expensive.